music, therapy, and me

Today will be the last bit of my Paid Time Off due to the need to get some CT scans done to see what is going on with my liver and my kidneys. This is not my favorite thing to do, but that's okay. It has to be done. So, I am sitting here, awash in medical anxiety, and entering my "nothing by mouth" phase of all of this. I have some errands that I need to do in town before and after my tests, and I am not sure if I will be going to work at all today - that will depend on my reaction after the test. The last time I had a CT scan, I fell in the waiting room - just toppled over - thanks, balance disorder! I may not make the window of my realistic time for driving an hour to work before driving another hour home for just working an hour or so. We will see what happens later. I only have one therapy group, one leisure group, and one individual session on Fridays. The rest of the time is my dedicated planning/preparation time. I usually make file folder activities for our classr...

I forgot to take my medications last night until about 2 hours later than usual. These are my big, pain relief, nerve dulling medications that affect my sleep, awareness, and response time, so it is a pretty big deal when I forget them. I opened my eyes when the alarm light turned on at 4am, but I also did not get out of bed until almost 5am. My brain is still fuzzy, and my eyes don't focus right until the medication starts to wear off. So, that means that today will be an even later day. Today is a four-group day. Three of my four groups have already been with me this week, so I have to come up with something new for them to do when they are in the music therapy session. The other group is my once-per-week group, so they haven't explored any of the things that I have available right now - yet. So, the first thing that I have to do is to figure out what I am going to do with my clients. They went through a series of silly songs with me on Tuesday, so I am thinking I will bring ...

I did not want to get up. This seems to be a recurring theme on this blog at the moment, so forgive me when I try to pick this apart right now. I did not want to get up. I wanted to sleep as much as I could, but the clock and the alarm light insisted that it was 4am, and time to get going. So I did. Wasn't happy about it, but I got up. I played some phone games while in bed first, but I did eventually rise from my warm, cozy bed to sit at my computer and compose some of my thoughts. We had a snow day on Monday, but that day started with early morning panic and anxiety rather than coziness. I got up just fine yesterday and got to work 30 minutes before my report for duty time. Today is a different story. This is my typical Tuesday feeling, and it came right on time for yet another 4 day work week. I haven't seen one of my groups for six weeks now, and I find that I am missing them. I see all of my other Monday groups on Wednesdays, so I am not missing those clients - we are stil...

It is the 27th day of January, 2026, and I am finding a need to be more rooted in myself and my thinking than I have accomplished recently. Hence, the return of my word of the year - metamorphosis.  This is my selected word because I am facing significant changes in my daily life coming up pretty soon. In fact, I have about five months left before I no longer work at the facility where I have been for the past (almost) 30 years. This upcoming change both exhilarates and terrifies me, but I am more than ready to move into my next state of being. I woke up just after midnight this morning needing to use the bathroom. I was able to go back to sleep for another three hours before my brain refused to sleep anymore. So, I have now been up for about an hour, going through my email accounts and other social media accounts. It is 4:35 am. I am really resenting the fact that I have to wake up and get going these days. I keep reminding myself that I will not have to get up in five months to g...

Here we are, again, at the end of another writing/blogging hiatus at musictxandme.blogspot.com. I just have not felt much like writing lately, so I haven't. I have spent more time in my bed, stretching my body, and getting bogged down in the happenings of the world to focus on writing much about music, therapy, and me. Today, though, I am sitting at home on our first snow day, and I am feeling the need to write something today. I am not exactly sure what I will end up writing, but something will show up in my brain, I am sure. First, let's catch up. I am currently sitting in my living room, waiting for a dump cake to finish baking, and enjoying the prospect of spaghetti casserole. There are morning rainbows scattered all over my living room from the crystal capybara and crystal Cinderella coach that I received as gifts for my last birthday. They reside on the window sill in my living room and offer these rainbows that move across the gray walls. I have a prism downstairs in my ...

It is Wednesday in the Midwest, and we are preparing for a polar vortex to happen on Friday. All this means for us is that it will be very cold - significantly below freezing and also below zero. It is time to get my Dad's puffy coat off the hook because my usual swing coat doesn't cut it when these vortices arrive. Other than that, it is business as usual. Music therapy sessions continue in my cold music therapy room. Students are involved in their own dramas as well as the staff members navigating their personal and professional situations. I am trying not to cough much as I share a bit about Australian music. The cough is left over from my recent flu, and it is not really getting better. I know it will eventually, but it hasn't happened yet. This weekend is my first adolescent symposium. We are going to be talking about age and developmental appropriateness in music selections, the ethics of music censorship, and then developing ideas and experiences to use with adolesce...

The past week has been rough, all. Not just the immense issues with our current leadership in this country, but also on a personal level. I had the flu last week - three days of high temperature and a nasty cough that is lingering. It was not the best time, but I am hoping that is over. Turns out, many people at work had the flu last week. It wasn't just me who was out. Last week was a lost week. I am exhausted right now. I am not really looking forward to going to work, but I will. I am still coughing quite a bit, which frustrates me because it makes it difficult to sing and make music. I am not entirely sure what I am going to do with my students this week. Last week's strategies will not work because we had a day off this week (darn Monday holidays). At the same time, having a week of country of the month videos would be good for my breathing and cough situation. I will probably just do the country of the month videos so I can rest a bit more. I finished the presentations fo...

It is Saturday. This is my favorite day of the week these days because it is the one day that I devote entirely to my "other than my primary job" pursuits. I have a list of things that I have to get finished before the end of the weekend, so I am working on tasks as I can. I haven't been able to check off anything except for computer-centric tasks so far, but I have many other things to do. One of the things that I do every other Saturday is a bit of peer supervision. It is nice to talk to a fellow music therapist about small business and internship stuff. So, we meet together every other week to talk about what is going on in our lives. That's on the to-do list. Other things are clearing my crafting space so I can host a symposium in two weeks without showing everyone my messy work space. I need to make food to eat this week - I already have hamburger cooked, so I am thinking about making a mass batch of chili and spaghetti sauce to eat on each night. I also have som...

Oh, dear. It is Friday, and I feel that the week went both fast and slow. Having less than usual numbers of sessions and students makes the week seem unfinished somehow. We get to do that again on the week of 19th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. That type of schedule is difficult to navigate, especially when you are a creature of habit like me. So, it is now the end of my four-day work week. I have two groups and an individual on the schedule today. That's it. The rest of the time that I am at work needs to be productive, but I have not been actually productive lately. So, I will be using my 30 minutes of work with 30 minutes of something else. I am in between visual aid projects at the moment, so I really don't have anything sitting there waiting to be worked on. I guess one of my work tasks should be to print out more visual aids to work on in the next 22 weeks. Meanwhile, back here at home, things are just piling up around here. My Christmas boxes arrived on Monday, and I h...

Complain, complain, complain. I am sitting here, trying to remember what day it is. I have this issue when I am on breaks because there are no outside pressures, but I REALLY have this issue when I find my typical daily schedule interrupted - like with a Monday at work without music therapy sessions. I am at odds with my expectations, mainly because I didn't have as many sessions as I have on my schedule. It is Thursday, right? This means that I have my Tuesday groups again and my Monday groups are finished for the week. Everything is a bit discombobulated in my brain, so I am having to remind myself over and over that this is the way it is this week, not next week, but will replicate the week after when we have Monday off for MLK, Jr. Day. I don't like having Mondays off or away from students. It just messes with my mind too much. Things are going well with other tasks. I have felt pretty good about my upcoming events as well as my own quests for musictherapyworks.com. I have ...

Let's talk about music therapy with adolescent clients on Saturday, January 24, 2026 - Three CMTEs for $30 USD. Topics include age and developmental considerations, the ethics of music censoring, and a group discussion about things we can do with our clients! Get ideas for therapeutic interventions to take back with you and use on Monday! More details here: http://www.musictherapyworks.com/morethanlyricanalysis.html Have you seen this graphic on music therapy social media feeds? I really hope so. I am getting ready to start this symposium for the music therapy community who, like me, work with adolescents and find little to no resources available. Let's work together to make this happen!! I hope that you will join me for this discussion in (gulp) 17 days!

Here we go. It is the first day of the second semester of the 2025-2026 school year - AKA, my last semester as a school-based therapist (as far as I know right now). I have five groups today - none of which are the same as the groups that I had on Tuesdays just two weeks ago. I have a vague idea of what I want to do with them (I have to laminate some resources that one student in particular will wrinkle immediately), but nothing is set in stone. I was anything but efficient yesterday. I did put some stuff into my car, but it is still sitting there, waiting for my attention. I received my Christmas boxes yesterday, so all of that stuff is scattered around my living room where I am currently storing the stuff I am bringing home from work, so things are getting to my overload state. Once I am finished with this post, I am heading upstairs to take a shower, get some water, and try my best to figure out what I am going to do with almost all of my students this week. I know what I am doing n...

Hello from my desk at home. I am currently about 90 minutes away from heading out to work for the first time this year. I am in denial about having to leave my home to go to work, but that's life. I have six months left at this job, so I am ready to get closer to my next transition, but I am also not ready for break to stop. This is my typical state of being at this point every year. Today will be a day without students - a professional development day where nothing has been revealed to any of us. I am anticipating a faculty meeting of some sort followed by some room time. I need to move out the crates of visual aids that I have collected and made over the past 30 years - there are many. Once those boxes are in my car, I will probably drive them around for a week before taking them out to the living room. That is currently the resting place for my work materials because I have not cleared the closet and rearranged the resource room. Should that be January's retirement quest? To...

For the first time in a long time, the new year has corresponded with the start of my new journal. I spent over a year in the last one, so this is somewhat of a surprise to me that I FINALLY filled the 200 page book and am getting to start another one. We will see how long this one lasts me before I can start another one, but there is something pretty fun and satisfying about transferring from one book to the next one. I am really taking my 2026 word of the year to heart right now. Metamorphosis is coming. I am heading towards a new phase of existence, and while it is a bit scary, it is also exhilarating. I am getting ready to become something else in my profession, and I am both excited and terrified of the transition! I took some steps towards my new existence on Friday by opening my business accounts with the seed money I have saved over the years. New accounts and a new bank. I have had a bill that will be covered by the business next year (I am hoping), and that is something that ...